Shaquille O'Neal has owned a large number of exciting vehicles over the years, spanning from full-blown exotics – well, as long as he fitted inside, obviously – to several luxury models and even a few mainstream cars. One of his latest toys is a customized Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Wait a minute, haven't we already covered this ride? We sure did, almost one year ago. However, it's almost Throwback Thursday, or Mansory Monday, as West Coast Customs said on social media when it revealed new images of this car, so that's a good enough reason for us to revisit it.
You see, the famous American tuner and retired professional basketball player have been collaborating on numerous projects since the late 1990s. That's when West Coast Customs started leaving its mark on Shaq's rides, and it has done many of them over the years, including the pictured Rolls-Royce Phantom.
West Coast Customs may have installed the add-ons, but these came from Mansory's portfolio. The latter was responsible for the development and making part, whereas the former simply added them to Shaq's full-size luxury sedan, aligning them and adding the typical Superman logo to that imposing grille. After WWC had completed the assembly process, it polished the car and gave it ceramic coating prior to sending it to Shaq.
Photo: Instagram | westcoastcustoms
These two major tuners do not seem to have gotten involved with the oily bits, as there is no reference to the engine. As a result, Shaq likely wanted the motor to remain stock, and that's not a bad thing at all, as you can still balance a nickel on it. The 6.75-liter unit that features dual turbos develops 664 pound-feet (900 Nm) of torque and pumps out 563 horsepower (571 ps/420 kW). The V12 enables 0-62 mph (100 kph) in around six seconds.
If you forgot, the Phantom is Rolls-Royce's flagship sedan and does not have a direct competitor in today's car world. The Mercedes-Maybach S-Class and Bentley Flying Spur compete against the smaller Ghost. For the 2024 model year, the Goodwood company is asking almost $500,000 for every Phantom it sells in the United States, and that's excluding dealer fees and destination. Thus, it's certainly a ride for royalty and one that suits Shaq perfectly, especially with the extra features.
For what it's worth, we're not usually fans of vehicles signed by Mansory or those that come from West Coast Customs, like that Toyota 4Runner we recently covered. However, Shaq's Rolls-Royce Phantom looks very good in black with the usual chrome bits and riding on bi-tone alloys. It's so nice that we're willing to ignore that Superman logo on the grille, which is the only thing that looks off. Still, this is Shaq's thing, so we can understand why the big guy did it.
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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